Opinion

Today is my birthday and I’m only feeling semi-happy. Despite more than a few cards, and cakes of various sizes and flavors from family, friends and well-wishers, I’m just not that connected to the event of my birth from more than half a century ago. I was born in a year...

There is some merit to the governor's positions on whether asylum seekers should get General Assistance and whether he vetoed the Legislature's bill authorizing it. The problem is the governor doesn't explain his positions well, the media isn't inclined to help him, and any merit to his po...

Edgar Allen Beem’s column titled “LePage Displays a Lack of Respect” has so appropriately targeted a very serious concern with the current governor of Maine. The governor’s total lack of respect for the majority of voters and the crude insults directed toward his opponent...

I am writing in opposition to the proposed Scarborough Beach parking. It appears that very little has been mentioned about protecting the dunes and piping plovers. Mr. Sprague states that he would like to keep the land as open space, but he needs to make "a little" income. Might he conside...

Artist and activist Robert Shetterly, president of the Union of Maine Visual Artists and creator of the "Americans Who Tell the Truth" portrait series, repeatedly stressed the need to remain mature and respectful in tone when he began preparing a press conference to express opposition to Gov. Pau... 4

I’m writing to add my voice to the many who are asking the Legislature to vote in favor of allowing Biddeford Downs to move forward without another statewide referendum. The Biddeford Downs project is a revenue-generating venture. Maine desperately needs such ventures to get back in the bla...

After the School Administrative District 51 Finance Committee recommended a 3 percent increase in the school budget for the 2011-2012 year, some historical facts about the SAD 51 budget may be helpful to establish a context for this recommendation, the budget discussion, and the budget vote. ...

Last night I had the strangest dream, about the world of Edgar Allen Beem. It began in a trendy little bistro in the Yarmouth area, where I overheard a conversation among what looked to be successful business people, or to some, I suppose, capitalist pigs. They said that Beem and hi... 16

Maine Gov. Paul LePage has ordered state workers to remove from the state Labor Department a 36-foot mural depicting the state’s labor history. Among other things the mural illustrates the 1937 shoe mill strike in Auburn and Lewiston. It also features the iconic “Rosie the Riveter,&rd... 4

By now the world knows that Maine Gov. Paul LePage ordered the removal of a mural from the walls of the Maine Department of Labor in Augusta. The mural depicted Mainers across the generations in the struggle for workers’ rights. Apparently, the mural proved offensive to a visitor to ... 6